


Dalninuk

by dmichelle312



Series: Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse [5]
Category: Forgotten Realms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brother-Sister Relationships, Daggers, Drow, Faerûn, Feels, Food, Gold Pieces, LLF Comment Project, Magical Artifacts, Male Character of Color, Male-Female Friendship, Other, Sibling Love, Swords, Toril, Training, crypts, inn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmichelle312/pseuds/dmichelle312
Summary: A young woman meet a Drow in an inn in Faerûn. A strong sibling love that will last a lifetime.
Relationships: Jarlaxle Baenre & Original Female Human Character(s)
Series: Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1461856
Comments: 2





	Dalninuk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Irhaboggles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irhaboggles/gifts).



> This story is heavily based on glimpses I have seen of parallel universe/alternate realities in "dreams".
> 
> Writing is a very cathartic experience for me and for most people who post their works on here. Catharsis is the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as writing, tragedy or music. Writing this down is a very cathartic experience for me, so here is part 5 of my series entitled "Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse".
> 
> Watch this first, folks:
> 
> [Video 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRRk1G-MicM)
> 
> [Video 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjf6LSS48dQ)
> 
> [Video 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrCi6Ml4fE)
> 
> [Video 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJpIclDmi2M)
> 
> [Video 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MQxzbk-LMk)
> 
> [Video 6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0R_muXmhs)
> 
> [Video 7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kar3mxwnEWw)
> 
> [Video 8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2FatvkA_0)
> 
> Also when you're done reading my story, folks, watch those playlists on science, multiverse, "dreams", parallel universes, alternate selves, quantum jumping and beings of various species in the multiverse (and check out the playlist description of the first playlist, you'll find links to several articles on these topic, some of those articles are about science and scientific discoveries, others are people talking about their own experiences, and there's even three articles showing that Multiverse theory does NOT conflict with the existence of God and/or Christian belief):
> 
> [Playlist 1](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzG_3q50DuPn66chQBVr5QMCFxZ_qugGU)
> 
> [Playlist 2](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzG_3q50DuPmVJ8zCLOwlTtcveSffN1Sx)
> 
> The title of the story, "Dalninuk", means "brother" in the Drow language.
> 
> Ussta dalninuk: "My brother" in the Drow language.

What if "dreams" aren't really "dreams", but us living a parallel life in a parallel universe and sleep is just the portal into the parallel universes. A lot of other people share this theory and agree that it is most probably the case. Also, a lot of science books and magazines talk about parallel universes, also known sometimes as alternate realities or alternate timelines, about the multiverse and our alternate selves, and about other things such as quantum jumping or the mandela effects. Think about it. What if your "dreams" are realities from parallel universes. And possibly, your reality is one of their "dreams". What if "dreams" are actually just the adventures you have in parallel universes across the multiverse?

That would explain why everything in those "dreams" feel just as real as this reality, if not more at times. That would also explain why we "awake" or "wake up" in those "dreams" and are just as lucid there as we are here, and why when we touch objects there like a wall, a table, a rock, or a doll, it feels just as solid and tangible underneath our hands and fingers as any object in our reality. It also explains why at times we have two sets of memories while inhabiting one of our alternate selves, our own and that of our alternate self. For example, you meet someone in that parallel universe and part of you know that you have been friends with this individual for years while another part of you know that you just met that person for the first time and that you cannot possibly know this person and yet you do and cannot shake off the feeling. Or you're grieving the loss of a dear friend you were close to while at the same time wondering why you are so affected by the passing away of someone you have never seen or heard about before and yet have personally known for years and you can't shake off the feeling. We share the memories of our alternate selves while we inhabit them and we remember their memories after we have inhabited them.

I think we don't really "dream", we actually live two lives simultaneously in parallel universes and consciousnesses switch from one to the other by sleeping. We don't realize this right away because when we are in one life, the other life feels like a "dream", at least at first and is less perceived by the untrained mind. In those parallel universes, there are beings and creatures that do not exist in our reality, because in our world they either went extinct or went into hiding a long time ago. There's one of my trips in parallel universes that I remember with perfect clarity and as if it was yesterday.

I was on the continent of Faerûn in the world or universe named Aber-Toril more commonly known as Toril. I was in an inn. There were wooden tables and chairs, plates and eating tools on the table and candles too, a fireplace with a crackling fire, men and women serving up food, people chattering, clinking sounds of plates and utensils, and the distant sound of music being played by a bard. I was sitting at a table and thinking about what I was going to order. Someone pushed a plate in front of me filled with food and a buck mug full of golden liquid. I looked up and in front of me was this dark-skinned man with pointed ears. His eyes were glowing red in the infrared spectrum. His kind had Darkvision. Within a specified range, a being with Darkvision can see in darkness as if the darkness were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that being is concerned. Most of his kind came from the Underdark, though this one was living on the Surface most of the time (he preferred to see adventure and profit in the World Above). Also the members of his race tend to be smaller and thinner than most Faerûnian elves.

He was wearing a cloak, leather boots, a wide-brimmed purple hat with a huge white diatryma feather on his clean-shaven head, and he was wearing a black patch on his left eye (not because he was missing an eye, but because this magical eye patch protects his mind from magical and psionic intrusions and allows him to see through walls and other solid objects). He had a scabbard around his waist that held a sword. He swept into a bow like a gentleman, with a kind smile and his eyes twinkling with playfulness, after he pushed the plate and cup in front of me. I was dumbstruck. This was Jarlaxle Baenre, the Drow or Dark Elf, the founder and leader of Bregan D'aerthe, the rebel who bravely sacrificed his hair, the rebel who refused to serve that monster Lolth. What also surprised was that he, a Drow, could sit here at an inn without people fleeing in terror or trying to kill him (the owner of the inn and the clients staying there for a day or two were pretty tolerant which is good), that was surprising considering how racist some people could be, judging others based on race and skin color. I know the danger of painting whole groups of people with a broad brush. I know how pointless and stupid the endless name calling gets and how much damage bigotry and prejudice can cause.

Jarlaxle sat on the chair in front of me and started eating his meal. My meal and beverage were delicious. It was ground beef and mushrooms with melted block cheese and herbs on it. And the golden liquid in the cup was like non-carbonated nectar soda pop and tasted like fruit, it was served in a buck mug. At first we didn't talk, we just ate and enjoyed each other's presence in companionable silence. To be able to sit comfortably with another without the need to speak. There was compassion in the Drow's eyes and there was nothing but acceptance in his expression. He was sitting there and eating with a human at the same table and treating her like a friend. He was not looking down on me or looking upon me as inferior because of my race or any other of my other arbitrary characteristics. There was no judgment, only acceptance and compassion. 

I knew he was friends with another human too, Artemis Entreri, but during the events of this "dream", Artemis was nowhere to be found and probably busy somewhere else. Half-way through the meal, I noticed that there were two scabbards around my waist, one of them held a long sword and the other a dagger. I stood up and touched the scabbards and the hilts of the sword and dagger, unsheating the blades and looking at the artistic work put into it, feeling the scabbards and the hilts underneath my fingers, fascinated with the objects and the tactile sensations. I became even more aware that I was in a parallel or alternate universe and inhabiting one of the many alternate copies of myself. Here I was eating with a Drow at an inn and marveling at the blacksmith's work.

There was something in a pouch at my waist, coins, gold and silver pieces. I left some money on the table to pay for my meal and I left a little tip as the food was good. I spaced out for about a minute and got distracted by the fluttering flames of the candles casting dancing shadows across the wooden table and the stone wall. He gently touched my hand and I snapped out of it. With a kind smile, he signed me to follow him. I instinctively knew I could trust him and that I would be safe with him. He took me to one of his Surface dwellings and procceeded to train me in the art of the swords and daggers. We sparred and he taught me new techniques and attacks that he found would be very useful for me. He also taught me how to throw daggers and he was such a good teachers that not before long I was easily able to hit the center of the target (the bullseye). 

Sparring and training with him was exhilarating and I felt closer to him than my biological sister. Our differences in race, skin color, childhood, hardships (and I don't doubt that he had it way worse than me considering he grew up in the Underdark where males where treated as inferior and mistreated, beaten, tortured, raped and sometimes killed by the priestesses and the "matron mothers" of the matriarchal, violent and misandrist Underdark political system, Drow males were raised from early childhood to be filled with self-loathing and internalized misandry at all times, I was glad that Jarlaxle broke free from the indoctrination and accepted and loved himself as he was) and all that didn't stop us from being close friends with a strong bond of friendship. 

And we had many things in common, we embraced our differences and our similarities. We had a brother-sister relationship and there was a lot of sibling love between us. I called him "Dalninuk" and he called me "Dalninil", which means "brother" and "sister" in the Drow language. He knew that unlike his biological sisters I would never deliberately hurt him and I knew he would never deliberately hurt me either. When I had sufficiently trained, he took me on one of his adevntures on the Surface, but it was just him and me. We went in search of a specific crypt and on our way there, we came across Drizzt 'Do 'Urden, the son of Zaknafein 'Do 'Urden, who had been a good friend of Jarlaxle. Drizzt turned and looked at us, the young Drow's long white hair and green cloak fluttered in the wind and his lavender eyes bore into mine. For a moment I couldn't look away. Guenhwyvar, his magical panther friend, accompanied him. Drizzt then walked away and I saw him and Guen slip into a cave. He didn't have a torch, he didn't need one, he had Darkvision and a torch was likely to draw attention to him. Something told me he was going back to the Underdark for some reason. Was some insane priestess threatening the lives of his friends again or something? Was Mithral Hall on the verge of another war? I didn't know what was going on but I hoped Drizzt would be careful and proceed with caution. With a sigh of resignation, I turned away from Drizzt and followed Jarlaxle.

We found the crypt and got inside the crypt. On the lid of a stone coffin or sarcophagus, we found a glowing orb. When Jarlaxle took it and held it in his hand as it glowed, lighting the darkness in front of us, I realized that i knew what that magical artifact was. This was Jarlaxle's Healing Orb or Orb of Healing. He smiled at me with kindness and gratitude, I returned his smile. A few days later, I ended in that same parallel or alternate universe and saw Jarlaxle again. I was feeling depressed but he cheered me up. He was clowning around, doing cartwheels, falling on his ass on purpose and losing hi hat. I burst out laughing. There was a bright, happy smile on his face when he saw that he managed to make his human friend and sister in all but name laugh and cheered her up. I walked toward him, he met me half way and he hugged me, I hugged him back with a bright smile. Ussta dalninuk, my brother, I will never forget this, I will never forget you. Family was not always about blood. It was about love and relationships developed. I felt closer to him than my biological sister. I will never forget those two encounters I had with him and I hope I will see him again someday. But no matter the time and distance apart he will always be my brother and I will always be his sister. When I "woke up" in my original body in my original reality, I though of him and of his kind, happy smile and I can say with absolute certainty that meeting him was one of the best experiences I've ever had and that is something I will never regret.

\- End -

\-------------------

Parallel universes have haunted science fiction for decades, but a large number of top scientists believe they are real and now in the labs and minds of theoretical physicists they are being explored as never before. There are more and more researchers that are now saying multiple realities and other dimensions have to be real.

And here are some good citations too:

"There's no such thing as fiction or imagination, as they're merely non-fiction manifestations in the wrong parallel universe." - Daniel Marques.

"The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from the arcane theoritical considerations. It is the explanation, the only one that is tenable of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality." - David Deutsch.

"Quantum computation is... a distinctively new way of harnessing nature... It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes." - David Deutsch.

"If I get a parking ticket, there is always a parallel universe where I didn't. On the other hand, there is a parallel universe where my car was stolen." - Max Tegmark.

"The only true borders lie between the universe and parallel universes." - Khalid Masood.

"Heaven is a parallel universe", Khalid Masood.

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration." - Nikola Tesla.

"In the parallel universe the laws of physics are suspended. What goes up doesn't necessarily come down, a body at rest does not tend to stay at rest, and not every action can be counted on to provoke an equal and opposite reaction. Time, too, is different. It may run in circles, flow backward, skip about from now to then. The very arrangement of molecules is fluid: tables can be clocks, faces, flowers. - Susanna Kaysen."

"In a parallel universe, someone cared about her not getting an education." - Sarah Mishra.

"Each nanosecond of history branches off into an infinite amount of parallel universes." - Pete Carroll.

"I was good at math and science, and I got a lot of degrees in lots of things, but in a parallel universe I probably became a chef." - Nathan Myhrvold.

"The universe is filled with the evidence of God's greatness. In awesome wonder we can consider the worlds He has made for us." - David Jeremiah.

"I entered what I can only describe as an alternate universe, and experience timelessness for myself. There was no refuting the immortality of the soul for me ever again after that." - Susan Schneider.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." - Neil Armstrong.

\- End -

\----------------------

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said before, folks, I'm going to write more stories in the upcoming months. If you want to be notified when I post new works, subscribe to me.
> 
> Also, see this (and leave me some feedback/con-crit please):
> 
> [Long Live Feedback Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject)


End file.
